CREAM is a student-run cooperative in which 25 to 30 UNH students, with the help of advisors, operate and manage a small business – a herd of 25 to 30 registered Holstein dairy cattle. Students milk, feed, and care for the herd every day of the school year, and also do outreach activities for the college and general public.

CREAM provides animal science, dairy management and pre-veterinary students, as well as students in the UNH Thompson School of Applied Science, plus students from other majors, with a hand’s-on learning model that helps them understand:

The applications of science to the management of a dairy herd.

How to work with other team members in a cooperative venture.

The work and decision-making skills required in production agriculture.

How to manage and operate a small business.

“Students take the course to work with the cows, but soon realize the course is as much about management and working with people, as it is about cows,” says Drew Conroy,CREAM advisor and professor of applied animal science at the Thompson School of Applied Science.

“After the first six weeks, students are largely self-directed in CREAM. This year’s CREAM class is interested in outreach and teaching others about agriculture in addition to everything else they do in the course. Come see what you can learn,” Conroy says.